A K-Pop Girl Group Turned Their Plastic Surgery Into a Musical Concept

Plastic surgery’s prevalence in South Korean society is overwhelming, but one K-pop girl group took it a step further with their latest set of releases. The relatively unknown Six Bomb went under the knife and documented the change for two singles titled “Becoming Prettier," one subtitled "Before" and the other "After."

Beginning in February, the act began teasing their “Becoming Prettier” project with the release of “Becoming Prettier Before” alongside a music video that showed the quartet beautifying themselves visiting a plastic surgery clinic for a consultation. But until the group began teasing their next single, “Becoming Prettier After,” earlier this week, it wasn’t entirely clear that the four women of Six Bomb had actually received plastic surgery.

Along with a video featuring the women dancing with their faces covered in bandages, the group released a teaser video that literally introduced the member's new faces on Tuesday (March 14). The clip confirmed that the girl group had indeed underwent cosmetic surgery, and showed the members of Six Bomb comparing their former appearances and their updated image.

The group released "Becoming Prettier Before" on Wednesday, March 15 (Thursday, March 16 in Korea), reveling in their new faces through the upbeat single.

Prior to the song's release, Six Bomb revealed in an interview with Korean outletStar News that they spent around 100 million KRW, or $88,600, for all four members to get cosmetic surgery. Three of the women had extensive work from the waist up but did not clarify any specific procedures, while the fourth had a nose job.

The group's members also said that they were the originators of the idea to have plastic surgery and then worked to incorporate it into their music and videos.

Six Bomb's members aren't the first K-pop stars to admit to having cosmetic work done, but they are the first group to use it as a marketing strategy for their music and to depict the process in music videos.

Cosmetic procedures are hardly rare in South Korea, which has one of the highest rates of plastic surgery in the world. Many Korean celebrities have gone under the knife and several have spoken publicly about it, though coming clean is still relatively rare as the entertainment industry favors natural-appearing faces are over surgically altered ones. Some K-pop entertainers have spoken frankly about their procedures, and vocal group Brown Eyed Girls even released a parody of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" titled "Plastic Face" on SNL Korea back in 2012 to mock their member's getting plastic surgery.